On 21 June 2019, around 18 ULI NEXT UK members (real estate professionals aged between 35 and 45) had an exclusive breakfast with Philip Barrett, managing director at PGIM Real Estate, and global head of business and investment operations, to discuss the issue of transitioning to a leadership role.

Based in London, Philip is responsible for the day-to-day management of fund operations, systems, finance, tax, operational and investment risk, valuations and compliance globally. PGIM Real Estate is the real estate investment management business of PGIM and is one of the largest real estate investment managers in the world with $75 billion in gross assets under management.

Having being involved in over £40bn of property deals, Philip was able to provide the benefit of his experience including over 20 years at PGIM Real Estate as well as his previous role at Arthur Andersen, where he was a Senior Manager in the real estate group at the firm.

The breakfast event, held under the Chatham House Rule, provided the opportunity for attendees to ask any question they wanted about Philip’s career and to discuss challenges they faced with leadership roles.

The key takeaways from Philip included:

• you own your career, don’t expect others to do it for you
• it is important to understand your position within the company where you work and creating a simple organagram for the business and where you fit in can help;
• if you are looking to climb to the senior ranks within the organisation, you need to not only be be good at what you do.  There are at least 2 other things you need; namely a ‘sponsor’ within the company to support your advance and an empty ‘box’ in the structure that supports the new position.  This box can be created due to growth or come about as someone has left.
• as a leader, give people space to flourish but maintain a watchful presence;
• real estate investment management will not be replaced by AI, but technology will fundamentally change how people interact with real estate;
• when managing people, not everyone will perform the tasks you give them the same way as you, or as well as you, hopefully they will do it ‘good enough’ to suffice;
• in the current economic and political climate, it is all about managing risk in an elongated cycle;
• lead by example – when you are a leader, you set the tone in the office through how you act in that office, be open and friendly;
• when you are new to an organisation, don’t always speak first in meetings – listen and understand the culture;

The ULI NEXT UK group would like to thank James Lai, one of Philip’s mentees, for organising the event and also Shepherd & Wedderburn LLP for hosting at its office in Condor House, London.

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